"Pizza Hunters" - Day 2: Milan to Modena
Journal Entry Day 2: Milan to Modena
08.52 - "Hotel New York" - Milan
Not a great night. It seems that the hotel ran out of pillows to we got slabs of granite. Pretty loud outside too, with the Centrale Stazione right there. Italian driving is something else; they don't hold back on the horn and it's just constant bedlam. Also, pedestrian crossings are more risky over here, as it's more of a "go for it" mentality for both driver and pedestrian. Breakfast was delicioso, but we had to settle for a couple of sweetened peaches for Kara. Here's hoping today's outing goes better.
17.50 - Centrale Stazione - Milan
So we've seen the Dumo and some more of Milano. The Duomo is impressive from the outside and quite lavish on the inside. Many of the features inside are geared towards tourists, but there is a confessional that was in operation during our visit.
As well as still being an active church, there are two embalmed bishops/cardinals that lie in one of the corners of the church itself. There was also the remains of a 16th century saint, interred in a crypt underneath. It was a bit odd; walking past an old glass coffin with a dead guy in it. The whole thing is somewhat tarnished by my views on the Catholic church, as there was the traditional "collection for the poor" while they charge for everything. I understand that it's not free to keep a church in good repair, but it bothers me to see such opulence next to such poverty.
We rode the Milan metro to get into town, after yesterday's fiasco and a bad night's sleep. It was pretty damn toasty, what with Mr Jesus' "no shorts, no shoulders" rule taking effect. Kara and I also went into the Ferrari shop, as it just didn't feel right not to. We both looked at lots of very expensive stuff, as well as quite a lot of utter tat...which was also quite pricey now that I consider it.
Milan seems to be a city under renovation. So many crane arms can be seen in the skyline, while many older buildings are covered with dustsheets and scaffolding. We saw a fair amount of Milan's skyline and despite a few steeples, it's mostly boring office blocks and highrise flats. Even the roof of the Duomo is being fixed and it's easy to see the "new " and "old" bits as they are positioned right next to each other. I think I was most impressed from the street level, looking up at Il Duomo. Every sculpture is exquisitely crafted, the doors themselves being works of art.
After Il Duomo, we headed for "San Bernardino Alle Ossa": an old church with an ossuary in the wings. Kara was beside herself with joy at the sight of what must be 1,000 skulls. There are what looks like arm and leg bones in with them, and they form a macabre but impressive sight. I think Kara was able to move Milan from "not for me" to "OMG!", at least for a little while.
We also were able to find Kara gluten free pizza. Sadly, after yesterday's stomach shrinking food shortage, she wasn't able to finish it. I tried to help, but to no avail. After a wee walk on the grounds of the Castello Sforzesco, we took a train back to Stazione Centrale, where I am writing this. I was in the mood to experiment, so I paid €6 for an "aperitivo". Basically, you buy a drink and get a free buffet. I had some amazing antipasti and reminded myself that I don't like beer. Kara looked folorn and hungry, so I went to pick up some crisps so she could pinch them from my plate. They looked just like kettle chips, but they were these incredible hand made gourmet crisps. There was a moment when we both into into a new batch to discover they were still warm and we just locked eyes and went "mmmm!"
Ok, so I apologise that I am complaining about a bad night's sleep. For the sake of a blog, it's not strictly relevant, but it was very much on my mind at the time. The point about Italian driving being a crazy free-for-all certainly holds true throughout all of the cities we visited. I will mention it in later posts, but Italian drivers are all auditioning to be racecar drivers. This extends to the motorbike and scooter riders who whizz past buses at full speed, often with pillion passengers. It makes crossing the road a potentially terrifying experience. A red or green light doesn't mean quite the same over here. It's more of a "if you're gonna go, go now" or "for the love of God, do not even attempt to cross now" kind of deal. This applies to both driver and pedestrian, so you need to be assertive but cautious when crossing the road. For the first few days, I still had a hard time trying to predict Italian traffic, partly due to them driving on the opposite side to the UK, but also because they have tiny little offshoot roads, and Milan seemed to have places where the road was actually two roads next to each other (as in traffic going left, right, left right if you were looking from one pavement across to the other).
I suppose I should elaborate on my thoughts regarding the Catholic church. As we booked our flights and trains etc, I knew that many of the sites we'd want to visit were owned by the Catholic church. My criticisms were undoubtedly nothing that your average Catholic hasn't heard before and I don't want to upset anyone who's reading this. It boils down to me being a cynic about the goings on behind closed doors. I don't think being a Catholic is bad, and I don't universally condemn religion, but the real-life outcome is brought into sharp focus when you visit a country that still feels very Catholic. While we were visiting, we were able to gleam a little bit of the debate in the news regarding the Catholic church's stance on homosexuality. The outcome didn't seem particularly positive, but I suppose it's good to see that the current Pope (who becomes a much more prominent figure once we get to Rome) is trying to discuss it publicly, giving it acknowledgement. I think my cynicism really came to a head when I saw the juxtaposition of the poverty on the streets of Milan, paired with the Duomo's "poor box" right next to the "restoration of the Duomo" box, while we were charged just to climb some stairs to the roof. It just seemed to coalesce with the stories of priests who drive Ferraris but extoll the virtues of modesty and a simple life to form a picture that gets under my skin. I know it's my choice to go in there, and I know there are good and bad examples for every faith (or atheism for that matter) but looking up at the astonishing Duomo and knowing that I was about to give money to an organisation I neither trust nor support gave me pause for thought.
The shops of Milan are many, but from my point of view, there's only maybe 5 or 6 major themes to the shops. We weren't really interested in any of them, as we were on a pretty tight budget (which we only really appreciated in the last couple of days) and we had little to no space at all in our luggage. It felt like walking around a procedurally generated videogame world, filled with the same storefronts. You have gelato counters, bars/restaurants, super-expensive designer clothes that mostly seem to look like they're for old ladies, slightly less expensive clothes shop that sell leather everything (which is ironic, as all of the people in there looked like they had leather skin), sandwich shops that taunted my girlfriend that just wanted a gluten-free cheese toastie and last of all; shoe shops. The only one of these we were interested in was the gelato counter, and Kara's lactose-free diet meant we were looking out for those that sold sorbet (or "granite" in Italian).
San Bernardino Alle Ossa was incredible. Creepy as hell, mind you, but a real marvel. Italy's churches don't hold back the macabre elements of the faith they teach. From the hundreds of skulls on display in the ossuary to the entombed bodies we saw at the Duomo, it's evident that the death element of Catholicism is not overlooked in the slightest in Italy.
The place we went for lunch in Milan was a restaurant that was a little out of the way called Cookwindow at Amatore Sciesa. Kara was pleasantly surprised with her first taste of Italian gluten-free pizza. It gave us some hope for our future travels.
By the end of this day, we had travelled to Modena as well, but for reasons that will be fairly apparent in the next post, I wasn't able to address them until what was technically day 4. I guess the outcome of our trip to Milan was that we made the best of it, and that if you are eating gluten-free then plan ahead for Milan as the city centre makes no accommodations for coeliacs.